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Plan Your HIPAA Tasks For 2016

Are you already looking forward to that summer vacation? Do you have it circled in red on your office calendar so your co-workers can see it (and be a little bit jealous?). Although they’re not circled in red, you likely also have times blocked off on your calendar for a dentist visit, an annual physical, […]

It’s the people, people.

When developing training courses for Privacy and Security Awareness programs I keep trying to find new and different ways to get the important points across. Real world examples seem to make the most impact when it comes to the participation in live training. That got me to thinking…. It really is all about the people. […]

We can do this. It’s easy.

An iconic symbol of on-the-job hilarity is the I Love Lucy episode in the candy factory. The vision of Ethel and Lucy shoving candy in their mouths, tops, and hats as the conveyor belt moves past can’t help but make you laugh. Vivian Vance and Lucille Ball ham it up at the chocolate factory in […]

Cha-cha-cha

Someone once said that an optimist is a person who knows if they take one step forward and one step back not to be discouraged, they are just doing the Cha-cha-cha. I have been trying to take that advice and cha-cha-cha my way through recovery. As I do so, I realize that is exactly what […]

Frankenhand!

Just after the first of the year, I had surgery on my right hand. I have spent the weeks since then adapting to not having full use of that hand for several months as it heals. That is definitely a challenge for someone who is fiercely right-handed. Most of my friends saw the incision that runs from palm […]

They want what!?

Takeaways: No longer are small providers “too small” for OCR to conduct a breach investigation. In an article concerning a breach investigation a copy of the information requested in the OCR letter was included. The items were to be supplied within 20 days. When I showed the list to others they had a look similar […]

Business Associate Agreement – Yours, Mine, or Ours?

Takeaways: Updated BAA deadline is Sept 23, 2014 and 5 Tips for managing your BAAs. Who is really in control of the content of the Business Associate Agreements to be signed? It has been a frequent question now that BAAs are required everywhere. Just who gets to control what is in the BAA gets down […]

HIPAA One and Done has Gone the Way of the Dodo

Takeaway for today: It is time to completely rethink the way you look at HIPAA Compliance requirements in your business. HIPAA Compliance has changed. It is no longer something you can just check off your list once or twice a year. A practice administrator told me she uses the phrase One and Done often for the things she […]

The fines are coming! The fines are coming!

To borrow from Longfellow’s poem: Listen my children and you shall hear Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere, In this case, it isn’t a midnight ride but a late afternoon speech by Jerome B. Meites, a chief regional civil rights counsel at HHS, in Chicago. Historians say Revere never uttered the famous phrase and neither […]

Danger, Will Robinson!

Have you read the FBI Cyber Division warning to the healthcare industry? There really isn’t anything surprising in there to many of us who work in the medical industry. The report itself kind of acknowledges it will fall on deaf ears. Hence the title of this article because the catchphrase comes to mind when I […]